One of the trickiest moves for Disney was when they bought the Star Wars property from Lucas in 2012. It was a smart business choice for Disney, seeing how massive Star Wars was as a franchise and they could get a lot of material out of it, and a smart choice for the franchise in general, since the public was less than positive with the prequel trilogy not giving them the return to form that they were hoping for. Since Disney had steered other properties in the right direction, it appeared to be a good decision. When talks of a sequel trilogy were spoken of, the fans were hopeful yet sceptical, not only after being deceived previously, but also because Star Wars being owned by a completely new company would have felt very different to them, even if it was Disney. Thankfully when The Force Awakens entered the cinemas, it seemed to remind people of why they loved Star Wars so much to begin with. 30 years after the end of the original trilogy, the empire has been replaced by the First Order, now commanded by a masked force user called Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver). Enforcing an identical role to the empire, a resistance has formed in order to fight against them, and a pilot named Poe (played by Oscar Isaac) implants a map in his droid unit, BB-8, that entails the location of Luke Skywalker, who has gone missing. The droid gets separated from Poe and ends up with a lone scavenger named Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) who along with a deserting stormtrooper named Finn (played by John Boyega) decide to help BB-8 get back to the resistance, placing them in the eyes of Kylo Ren. As a return to Star Wars, this film does so with a similar feel, energy, and atmosphere to the original trilogy, as well as being packed with a ton of great actors, a mix of practical and CG effects, and much more engaging humor. While the similarities can be a bit too obvious in moments, this was a step in the right direction.

While the film was received fairly well from fans and critics, the biggest criticism that has been thrown on this film is the fact that the story is essentially a retelling of A New Hope. Instead of branching out into new concepts and a different story direction right away, the film’s narrative feels noticeably similar to the first film, which can be a bit distracting in moments, particularly in the final act. The movie feels like it wanted to play it safe with its story and have familiar elements that would warm fans up to this new trilogy before expanding into other ideas. This is most likely due to the negative reaction to the prequel’s direction not being viewed very highly, and instead relied on a similar story to mold their new film. While a majority of the film manages to stand on its own nicely enough due to its atmosphere, directing and acting, the last act is when everything falls apart and the remade elements become to in-your-face. The director, J.J Abrams, has never been good at finishing sci-fi films and this movie is no exception, with the movie’s drive and passion feeling lost and empty as soon as the final mission begins, and the similarities to the original will only make people care less. With that said, the overall film captures the atmosphere of the original trilogy miraculously well, returning to form with a grittier harsher tone that felt much more real and engaging. Though the re-run plot is pretty disappointing, the new ideas introduced in the film are pretty interesting and open up future movies to expand upon them very nicely.

The characters are a blend between characters from the original trilogy, with examples like Han Solo and Leia, played again by their original actors, and a brand-new cast being utilised as the main focus. The changes to the original cast are not the expected or even positive results that a fan would think after the happily ever after of Return of the Jedi, with a lot of them returning to previous roles after falling apart as life went on. This allows the characters to continue being interesting while still having something to do with them, along with the new characters being given time to set themselves up. These characters return to the form of complexity through simple beginnings, having easy to grasps origins but ones that are very identifiable and quick to understand. Both Rey and Finn are likeable leads that keep the audience’s attention very well. The acting from the two is very good and turns what is less than amazing dialogue in a retelling of a familiar story and keeps people from noticing the familiar tropes. The villain, Kylo Ren, is not only a nice alteration on the Darth Vader archetype, but the acting from Adam Driver gives him this great unique sounding voice that works really well at being intimidating but can be incredibly emotional and vulnerable as well. The scene shared between him and Rey is one of the best scenes in the whole film and shows the strengths of both actors. Though Harrison Ford had a rough patch in his acting career during his old age, this feels like classic Han Solo aged up, leading to a lot of great scenes that do not feel forced or unnatural. The movie does falter in its handling of its other villains and the usage of the side characters. The droid, BB-8 is pretty likeable, but Poe is not given enough time to form his own identity in this film. The First Order is not very well set-up, which leaves all its troops and characters within feeling like carbon copies of previous villains, especially with the main leader, Snoke (voiced by Andy Serkis).

After the overuse of CGI effects in the prequel trilogy, it was nice to see a return to form with this film in how many real-life locations and other effects were used to make most of its areas come to life. With puppets and physical environments, it returned Star Wars’ much needed physicality while also keeping its sense of realism and mythical energy. It was not afraid to look dark and dirty looking, it gave the film that much recognised character while still having elements of simplistic beauty within it. The action scenes in the film are not as prominent as they were in the prequels, returning to the more restrained originals where the fights were solely kept for important moments. The final fight at the end is set in a great location that gives a ton of atmosphere and cool visuals, but the purpose of the fight is not that strong, which means it’s doesn’t hit as hard. The space battles are also not that much stronger; while they are better handled than the prequels and there are still some nice shots that give the ships a real sense of weight and gravity, all the scenes being shot with a medium angle prevents that close feeling of the original, which causes a disconnect that isn’t as effective. The writing feels much more natural and gives the movie a lot of nice emotional moments as well as plenty of light-hearted moments that aren’t pandering and annoying. The movie’s tone feels correct again; with a lot of dark moments in a world where people die, but there is still a light warm-hearted element that feels classic Star Wars.

The Force Awakens could have been a much stronger movie if it didn’t repeat A New Hope. It works fine enough as a tool for showing the fans of Star Wars that they are capable of handling the Star Wars property with dignity before diving into more unknown material, but it doesn’t stop people from being distracted when the points become too obvious to ignore. Despite that along with a pretty un-engaging climax and a really pointless moment involving tentacle monster during the middle, the film overall is still a pretty solid return to Star Wars and was the first film since the original trilogy that gave people that classic Star Wars feeling again. The atmosphere and visuals really shine and help in recreating this feeling, but the true strengths come in its cast and in its humor, which suck people in and gets them ready for what is to come next. With so much good-will being created here, it is a real shame with how quickly the fan base turned against them soon after. Check it out and see what was at the moment, Star Wars’ new hope.